Crippled Horse and Her Baby Saved from Auction Barn

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Irene and Ali came into our rescue program unexpectedly one April evening. The date of their arrival was a very unusual one for me, as I found myself drawn to the Jones Livestock Auction. This is a very rare occasion for me, because I know that I can’t save them all and with the overwhelming number of cruelty cases that I get in, I just don’t have the funds to purchase horses. However, for reasons that are very clear to me today, I found myself walking through the livestock barn in Jones on this particular Thursday night viewing the horses. As I reached the last stall in the barn, I found this pair. Irene, a 17-year-old paint, had just given birth to her daughter Ali two days prior to being taken to the sale barn. This newborn filly was being exposed to all types of illnesses at the sale barn. And her mama was crippled, blind in one eye, had a huge abscess on the side of her face and was very underweight. Other than the fact that she didn’t like the other horses looking at her baby, she was just the sweetest girl and seemed to scream “help me!”

That was all I needed to see. I knew then that I was staying for the evening.

Irene was one of the last horses to come through the sale and not even the ‘kill buyer’ would bid on her. No one offered up a single bid, and then the auctioneer looked at us, since he knows who we are and what we do, and we immediately said, “Yes. Of course.” No one was willing to save this special momma and her baby, but we did so without hesitation.

They Came Home With Us

Safe at Blaze's Tribute Equine Rescue

We brought them home and had our veterinarian examine them immediately. Baby Ali had diarrhea and we were concerned for her life, as we know she was exposed to strangles (a highly contageous and serious infection). We immediately treated her for the diarrhea and prayed that she would survive. Momma’s huge abscess turned out to be caused by strangles, so our veterinarian immediately drained the wound and flushed it out.

Irene was placed on antibiotics and the next several days were crucial. We watched over the two very closely and baby Ali started thriving, trying to eat with momma, growing and doing great.

Just one month later, Momma had gained 100 pounds and was just the sweetest girl you will ever meet, always greeting us with a friendly nicker. Ali began to run, buck, play and grow like a weed. In fact, Ali was almost as tall as her momma in just a few short weeks and quite a flashy girl.

We knew we had to find the right home for this pair with a family who would look past Irene’s handicap and offer her the loving, forever home that she and her foal so greatly deserved. After all, Irene didn’t ask to be put through all that she has. She only wanted someone to love her and her baby.

Today, Irene and Ali are living in Halstead, Kansas. They are well loved and spoiled rotten.

Ten Years of Saving Lives

Over the past 10 years, Blaze’s Tribute Equine Rescue has saved 841 horses and counting. Most of them have been victims of severe neglect or cruelty and the Cross family is devoted to nursing each horse back to health in body and soul.

As Blaze’s Tribute Equine Rescue is readying to receive more mothers and foals this spring, they’re counting on the World’s Biggest Baby Shower for Animals for help. This event brings together small but powerful rescue teams from around the world in a collective mission to save the animals others deem unreachable.

This is Nala. She arrived emaciated with an extremely bad infection in her mouth. She had several rotten teeth that needed to be pulled. The cost of rehabilitation for horses like Nala is no small thing.

Sissy came into rescue along with 39 other horses, 12 Donkeys and a mule that were severely starved and neglected. This is by far, one of the worst rescues we have seen. Horses were found dead, where they had dug themselves a hole and clearly suffered and died. We were able to save 52 horses, all of which are doing wonderfully.

This 18 year old Miniature Donkey Blanche came in extremely emaciated and in critical condition. Upon veterinary examination, it was clear that she had miscarried a foal shortly before coming into rescue and hemorrhaged with a lot of trauma to her uterus.

Foals that come into the rescue program have a bright future ahead of them with loving adoptive families.

Shawn and Natalee Cross (left) hold down full time jobs to feed their family and devote their off hours to the horses. Over the years they have sacrificed so much for the sake of the horses.

Irene and Ali had virtually no hope the day they entered that auction barn. They would have come to a tragic end were it not for Natalee’s strong intuition that she needed to be at the auction barn that evening.

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236 comments

Paul and Carole D - the way we stay in it is because of stories like this! For every one that we don't save, we still have those that we do. Yes, there are days when everyone of us wants to just close our eyes and ears and say NO MORE - I CAN'T DO ANYMORE! However, our hearts don't close - so we take a shower to wash off the ugly energy, get dressed, and go back out there to stop this insane cruelty to other living creatures. When I said to a friend years ago that there were days when I just was so exhausted and felt like I just kept standing out there in a 100 mph wind trying to keep my candle lit... her response was classic when she said, "Well, honey, THAT'S what LIGHT WORKERS DO!" She was right. Blessed Be!

Does anyone else have problems sometimes reading these stories? No, really? How do you handle the sadness? Sometimes, I have to just close the page. I know it is happening, but, these stories and the pictures I get in the mail, the commercials for animals.....sometimes, it is just overwhelming. How do you all keep in the loop without going "nuts?"

I don't know why I read these stories. Even with the happy endings they are so sad and say nothing for us as a species. Why wasn't the owner charged with abuse? Doesn't the state have laws that require animal owners to get timely veterinary care for their animals? And why did the auction house allow a horse with strangles into the barn? In this story I see hundreds of people ignoring a horse in desperate need and only two people doing anything about it. It sickens me.

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Lindsay Spangler is a Web Editor and Producer for Care2 Causes. A recent UCLA graduate, she lives in San Francisco, California. She is most interested in the environment, civil rights, immigration rights, and international politics. less